Artículo original Coinfección de hepatitis B y/o hepatitis C en pacientes infectados por virus de inmunodeficiencia humana (VIH)

Co-infection with hepatitis B (HBV) virus and/or hepatitis C (HCV) virus can induce complications in HIV+ patients. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of serologic markers in HBV and/ or HCV in plasma of HIV infected patients, and its correlation with the HIV viral status and the immunological status of the patient. The study included the evaluation of 1,846 HIV positive plasmas referred to the Instituto Nacional de Higiene "Rafael Rangel" for the determination of HBV and HCV serologic markers. The evaluation of the viral and immunological status was done by the analysis of the HIV-1 viral load and CD4+/CD8+ T lymphocyte counts, respectively, in the population studied. The frequency of HBV or HCV co-infection was 15% and 5%, respectively, while HBV/HCV co-infection was 0.16% (3/1,846) in HIV infected patients. There was no association between the presence of HBV or HCV serologic markers and low or normal values of the HIV genomic RNA (p=0.81 and p=0.31, respectively) nor low or normal values of the CD4/CD8 index (p=0.75 and p=0.06, respectively). These results suggest that HBV or HCV co-infection does not seem to influence the viral and immunological status of the evaluated population.